The present description relates to a light emitting diode (LED) lighting device having a heat sink and a surface mount LED lamp.
Light emitting diode (LED) light sources are susceptible to damage by excessive heat buildup. Surface mount LED light sources are energized at high power levels which increases an amount of heat generated. In some approaches, surface mount LED light sources include a heat sink located such that when the LED is mounted on a printed circuit (PC) board the heat sink contacts the PC board permitting terminal energy to flow from the LED to reduce the temperature of the LED.
A PC board is usually small which limits the amount of heat energy that the PC board can absorb. In addition, PC boards can have high thermal resistance reducing their ability to transfer heat energy to adjacent components or heat sinks. Also heat transfer to an adjacent heat sink depends upon the thermal contact resistance between components such as the adjacent heat sink and the PC board. The thermal contact resistance can be excessive if components are not pressed against each other-do not have intimate contact. Unfortunately it is possible for components to be near each other but have poor contact such that heat transfer is limited. Finally heat transfer to adjacent components depends upon the surface contact area between the components and the distance between components. As the distance between the heat sink and the LED increases or as the surface area between components decreases the heat transfer is reduced. Therefore in many products heat transfer from the LED is inadequate due to minimal surface area or an unacceptably large distance between heat transfer components.